Quotes from Liz Kessler

How big can a giant Japanese spider crab grow?" "Ten feet," I said instantly. "Very good. Hm. What color is a banded butterfly fish?" "Black and silver. Too easy!" "Too pointless, more like," Mom said under her breath.

All that time I thought she was my future, I was wrong. She wasn't my future at all. She was the door to my future. But I'm through that door now, and ready to close it behind me.

Oh, by the way, Mom, I've been meaning to ask. I don't suppose you married a merman, had his child, and then never saw him again? OR THOUGHT TO TELL YOUR DAUGHTER ABOUT IT? HUH???

breaks into a smile that feels like the sun coming out from behind the heaviest cloud in the sky.

There's something in the back of my mind when I wake up. Just out of reach. Like when you get a bit of food stuck between your teeth, right at the back of your mouth.

Wasn't my hair shorter than when they last saw me?

Full-time, not a semi-mer like me.

celebrations.

Julia and I sit next to each other sometimes. We're not best friends. Sharon Matterson used to be my best friend, but she went to St. Mary's. I'm at Brightport Junior High. Julia's the only person here that I might want to be best friends with. But I think she really wants to be best friends with Mandy Rushton. They hang out together between classes.

In fact . . ." Millie was saying as she reached into the little bag she always carried on her shoulder. She pulled out a small book. It was bound in black felt, with pink and blue feathers around the edges and Orphalese Oracle spelled out in fancy letters along the spine. "If I remember right, this year is even more special.

smiling so brightly that the three of us could have been auditioning for a toothpaste ad.

Shiprock was the merfolk town where Shona used to live.

She shook her head. "That was a geography reef trip. More scientific. This one will probably have something to do with looking for material to make new hairbrushes or finding the perfect rocks to sit on the edge of." Althea pretended to yawn as she spoke.

Her hair is tucked behind her ears, a few stray strands lazily brushing her cheek. I suddenly have the strongest sensation of wanting to reach out and curl them in place behind her ear.

The queers could almost pass for the same species as the straights.

Mom poked her head around the door. "Come on, time to get up." I turned over and opened one eye. Mom came in and sat on the end of the bed. "Back to school!" she said, smiling at me. "Are you

From Joe Gardener's Notebook "You are taste and smell and feeling of pen on paper, you are perfect- Do you know how perfect you are? .. I am nothing but a pair of eyes, waiting to be looked into

On the way out, I hug Mum, holding her close. 'Thank you,' I whisper. 'For dinner - and for everything.' Mum smiles and strokes my cheek. 'There's nothing to thank me for.

People were pointing and muttering to each other

the last ones there at this rate." As we swam, one thought propelled me forward: Aaron

at us all on the front deck. Aaron's mom was sitting on the front benches with her and Mom. She looked just like Aaron, thin and pale, with jet

Very often, the only obstacles in our path are the ones we place there in our own minds.

Morning, sausage

I let out a breath. So basically we needed to find a place where what we saw wasn't really there, and then climb up a tongue into a giant's mouth. Excellent.